Iran-backed armed factions in Iraq have rejected a government plea to extend their truce with US troops stationed in the country, a commander from one of the groups has told The National.
The groups announced on Tuesday that they were ending the truce, which was meant to give the Iraqi government time to negotiate the withdrawal of the US soldiers.
Baghdad and Washington agreed in late July on a two-year plan to end the mission of a US-led coalition in Iraq that was brought in to fight the extremist group ISIS a decade ago. Both sides were set to announce the deal in August but this was postponed after an attack on US troops at Ain Al Asad airbase, in western Iraq, earlier this month.
On Tuesday, the influential Al Nujaba Movement announced it was ending the truce. Haider Al Lami, a member of the movement's political council, told The National there had been too much “procrastination and stalling” from the American side during talks.
leader of the True Promise Corps
The True Promise Corps, another group in an alliance of Iran-backed groups known as the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, on Wednesday doubled down on rejecting the ceasefire.
“The government asked through brothers in the political entities for a renewal of the truce to continue their secret discussions, but there will be no new truce,” leader Mohammed Al Tamimi told The National on Wednesday.
“These discussions are a mere lie and illusion,” he said. “There are no genuine discussions regarding the withdrawal.”
The two most powerful factions in the alliance - Hezbollah Brigades and Al Nujaba Movement - as well as others, are “not committed to any truce with the US troops, and they [American soldiers] are legitimate targets for the Islamic Resistance in Iraq,” Mr Al Tamimi said.
US officials have said they are not negotiating the withdrawal of troops from Iraq but rather a new security agreement with the country. Baghdad has only said it is willing to enter bilateral security agreements with individual member states.
About 2,500 US troops remain in Iraq in an advise-and-assist capacity with the aim of preventing a resurgence of ISIS. Hundreds of troops from European countries are also part of the coalition.
Under the agreement reached in July, the US-led coalition would begin withdrawing from their bases in Baghdad and Anbar in September and would formally end their mission by September 2025, according to Iraqi sources. Some troops would remain in Iraq's Kurdistan region until September 2026 to oversee anti-terrorism operations in neighbouring Syria, they said.
But the armed factions want US troops out within six months, Mr Al Tamimi said.
“We do not expect the withdrawal to happen overnight,” he added. “The timetable must be between three and six months maximum.”
The True Promise Corps emerged after the 2003 US invasion of Iraq that toppled Saddam Hussein. Like other Iran-backed groups, it fought in Syria when the country's civil war erupted in 2011.
The group drew attention recently when it joined with the Islamic Resistance in Iraq in claiming several attacks against US troops in the country, as well as in Syria and Israel, after the Gaza war broke out in October last year.
Mr Al Tamimi warned of more assaults against US soldiers.
“The resistance has made its stance clear: it is capable of driving the Americans out with the language of weapons, the language of drones and the language of rockets,” he said.
“The Americans will not leave Iraq except by force.”
The truce breakdown comes as efforts to each a ceasefire in Gaza have stalled, raising prospects of an imminent retaliation by Iran and its proxies in response to the killing of Fouad Shukr, the top military commander of the Lebanese group Hezbollah in Beirut, and the assassination of Hamas's political leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran in late July.
“The Iranian leadership has allowed a period of time for more discussions [on a ceasefire] in hopes they succeed, as the fate of the Palestinians in Gaza is more important than anything else,” Mr Al Tamimi said.
Any action by Iran, he added, will be “highly coordinated” between Hezbollah, the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, Yemen’s Houthi movement and others in Syria, and “will be in the heart of Tel Aviv”.
“A military response is inevitable,” he said.
